Teddy Gales stands at the front of a big, sleek coach bus and proclaims, “We’re going to go to Mr. Beef.”
“Well, actually,” he stops himself, “this is my first check-in of the day. Do we have everyone?”
The 25 hungry, out-of-towners and suburbanites respond in unison, “Yes, chef.”
It’s the beginning of a three-and-a-half-hour food tour inspired by FX’s hit, Chicago-set kitchen dramedy, “The Bear,” which returns this week with its final season.
On this sunny Saturday, Gales, a 32-year-old actor, comedian and overall Chicago enthusiast, is wearing a white T-shirt, jeans and a blue apron, the same getup donned by Jeremy Allen White’s character, “Carmy.”
Since the show debuted in 2022, it has both delighted and annoyed local viewers. Spotting the actors as they filmed across town and seeing Chicago restaurants featured on screen became a sort of shared local ritual. So did scrutinizing any detail that felt disingenuous, like Carmy’s 773 tattoo. (“773 isn’t Chicago’s original area code,” one Reddit user wrote.)
But whether you love it or hate it, the seismic impact of “The Bear” feels undeniable.
Over its five seasons, the show has made stars out of its lead actors, White and Ayo Edebiri, plus much of its supporting cast, including Ebon Moss-Bachrach, Liza Colón-Zayas, Lionel Boyce and Abby Elliott. It has also racked up a lengthy list of awards and boosted the profile of real-life chefs and restaurants featured on screen, from Avec to Kasama and Lao Peng You.
But no establishment is featured more prominently than Mr. Beef, the no-frills River North restaurant owned by Christopher Zucchero (who has a minor role in the show as “Chi-Chi”), a childhood friend of “Bear” creator Christopher Storer. This is the food tour’s first stop.
As the bus pulls up on Orleans Street, Gales proclaims, “We already preordered the sandwiches, so when you get in there, take a left, we’ll be at the dining room, and oh boy howdy are you excited for some stuff.”
Inside, Gales points out the sweet peppers and hot giardiniera on the table. The first bites of the tour get a chorus of praise from Terry Pasket and his teenage sons, Jack and Cole. The family is visiting from Florida.
“I’ve never had something like this before because we’re from Jacksonville and it’s just so good,” Jack, 18, said. “Yeah, it was awesome,” Cole, 16, agreed.
Chicago Food and City Tours debuted this outing in 2023 and, much like the show itself, it has consistently been a hit. “This is a tour that ruins dinner plans. In a good way,” said Gales, who’s been a guide for three summers running.
The next stop is Fulton Market’s Publican Quality Meats. Here, chef and butcher Rob Levitt chats with the group as they munch on cheese, sausage and pâté. Levitt himself had a cameo in the show, during chef Sydney’s (Edebiri) season two food crawl across town, on which this tour is loosely based.
Levitt said the show has left a permanent mark on the food world.
“It’s just become a part of the food culture,” Levitt said. “People are constantly talking about, is it a good representation of the industry? But I think the one thing that I love is that everybody agrees that it is a love letter to Chicago.”
Donnie Madia, the Chicago restaurateur behind One Off Hospitality, which owns the Publican brand of restaurants, plus Avec and other concepts, has also appeared in the show, playing himself. While on the red carpet during the recent James Beard Awards, Madia reflected on the series.
“All the actors have put another spotlight on this city, letting everyone know that this city is the culinary destination, not of the universe, but in the nation,” Madia said. “There’s a heightened awareness, and also a spotlight.”
Madia’s analysis is hard to deny on this bus, which includes a food influencer and her husband from New Jersey, retirees from North Carolina and a multi-generational family from Los Angeles.
As they roll through West Loop, Gales points out chef Curtis Duffy’s two-Michelin-starred restaurant, Ever. The pristine palace of fine dining was featured prominently in the second-season episode, “Forks,” which is often lauded as one of the best in the series. In it, Cousin Richie (Moss-Bachrach) trains at a fictionalized version of Ever, as Academy Award-winner Olivia Colman stands in as the restaurant’s chef.
While he doesn’t appear on screen, Duffy helped the production behind the scenes.
“‘The Bear’ gets it right,” Duffy told WBEZ/Sun-Times last year. “There is some drama in there, and it sells, but, for the most part, they do get it right. They’ve studied a lot of the front of the house, the back of the house, the conversations behind the scenes. All of those are very real and relevant to someone who’s in the business.”
Aboard the bus, Gales does a quick check-in with the group. “This is our first tummy check of the tour, how we feeling? We feeling full?” Gales calls out. “Feeling good,” one attendee answers. “All right, good,” said Gales, “because we’re going to go get pizza.”
The bus is heading to Logan Square for a slice at Pizza Lobo, which was also featured in season two. On the way, the tour hits some serious traffic, so Gales improvises. He talks about the history of three-flat apartment buildings and how Streeterville got its name from an old sea captain.
Being flexible is part of the gig, he said.
“That’s the thing, is you do this long enough, and you have hours of stuff,” he said. “But you shouldn’t be so locked into your stuff that if someone has a question or whatever, you have to be like, ‘Hold on, I’m not done yet.’ Because that’s not fun. It’s more fun if this feels like it’s your friend taking you around the city.”
The tour does eventually get pizza. Then, doughnuts from Roeser’s Bakery in Humboldt Park and finally, sundaes at Margie’s Candies, the famous Logan Square sweets shop, which, as Gales points out, was once famously patronized by The Beatles.
Here, the hot fudge is a hit with Jill Lebovic and her husband, Mitch, of suburban Glen Ellyn. “It tastes like hot fudge brownie batter, it’s really good. Really, really good,” said Jill, who was gifted tickets to the tour by her husband for Christmas. “We had to wait a good long time, it’s been six months, but totally worth it.”
The bus heads back to the starting point, and attendees grab a final drink at The Green Door Tavern, down the block from Mr. Beef.
Nearby, Zucchero — the owner of Mr. Beef — can be spotted on the sidewalk, posing for a selfie with a couple of customers. Since the show started, the crowds come from all over.
“To me, it’s just a place I’ve had to work at since I was a little kid, but this is something I love,” Zucchero said, pointing to the line out the door. “All these people make a pilgrimage to this place.”
This is “The Bear” effect in the wild.
Courtney Kueppers is an arts and culture reporter at WBEZ.